Team 18 has revealed the shakedown date and opening event livery for the Scott Pye Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro Supercar.
The South Australian will contest the opening event of the season, the Thrifty Newcastle 500, with naming rights backing from Hino Australia.
Before then, however, his T18-001 chassis will be shaken down at Winton on Thursday, February 16, slightly later than Team 18 had previously indicated.
It will thus be revealed in the ‘flesh’ in six days’ time, but renders of the car show that it will carry a red-and-black livery at the Newcastle East Street Circuit.
Not only have engines been randomly allocated within the Chevrolet and Ford camps, but so too have the first ever Team 18-built chassis to Pye and Mark Winterbottom, by way of a coin toss and draw from a hat.
Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt said, “We at Team 18 are so proud to reveal the colours of our first Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ahead of the 2023 season launch in Newcastle.
“It’s an exciting time as we are not only racing brand-new cars, but racing two new cars that we have built in house – it’s a testament to the entire staff at Team 18 for their hard work and efforts to get set for the new chapter of Supercars kicking off next month.
“It’s a great honour to welcome Hino as title partner on our first Gen3 livery as well as welcoming all our new and existing partners to the team this year.
“We can’t wait to see Scott hit the track in his Camaro for the first time at Newcastle.”
Pye himself said, “The Hino Camaro looks fantastic and I’m super excited to get behind the wheel – hopefully it’s covered in champagne pretty early in the year.
“Being in the workshop to see the car build has been really inspiring, and I’m confident we’ll arrive for testing in a really good position and be ready to rumble by Round 1 at Newcastle.
“My pre-season has been massive – I only took one week off in New Zealand, I was pretty frustrated after Adelaide last year and I turned that frustration quickly into a positive by getting back into training early.
“The bumpy nature of the Newcastle track and its kerbs puts even more emphasis on our testing programme to ensure that we’re putting the car through its paces and finding any issues that arise before we get there so we can capitalise on what will be a really tough event.”
Following the shakedown, Team 18 will head to the all-in test day at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 22, while the Newcastle 500 takes place on March 10-12.
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